"Fix Your Car" Scam Artist Out of Jail: Neighborhood Watch

Photo Credit: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office

A notorious criminal who has been operating in Midtown for at least five years has been out of jail since February, and a local neighborhood watch organization is warning residents to be on the lookout for him.

Pedro Soto was released from the Fulton County jail on Feb. 10, reports the Midtown-Ponce Security Alliance (MPSA). Soto, who has also gone by Orlando Hernandez and Roberto Aguilar, is known as the “fix your car” scammer for his unique method of extracting money from his victims.

Soto will crawl under an unattended vehicle and disconnect a cord to disable it. Once the owner of the vehicle returns to his or her now-dead car, Soto will approach them as a friendly stranger offering to fix the problem for a small sum of cash. Normally the scam ends there, but in June of last year Soto robbed his victim by claiming to be carrying a gun. This was the most recent incident which sent Soto to the slammer.

MPSA says that if you return to your car only to find it’s suddenly stopped working to call Midtown Tire at 404-874-1112 during regular business hours or by calling AAA at night.